Nithari killings: SC dismisses 14 pleas against acquittal of accused Surendra Koli

A detailed SC judgment is awaited.

Koli, meanwhile, will continue to be in prison even after his acquittal was upheld by the SC in 12 cases because of the life imprisonment awarded to him in the murder of a teenage girl by the HC. “The convict will continue to remain in jail because of a life term in one of the Nithari cases,” the CBI spokesperson told PTI.

The killings had come to light with the discovery of skeletal remains of eight children from a drain behind Pandher’s house at Nithari in Noida in December 2006.

Further digging and searches of drains around Pandher’s house led to more skeletal remains. Most of these remains were that of poor children and young women who had gone missing from the area.

Pandher and Koli, his domestic help — both were arrested in December 2006 — were accused of abducting and raping children and women, committing acts of cannibalism, and disposing of their bodies in a drain. Koli had allegedly killed the girls, chopped their bodies before throwing them in the backyard.
On October 16, 2023, the HC had acquitted Koli in 12 cases, and Pandher in two. Both had earlier been awarded the death penalty in these cases relating to rape, murder, and destruction of evidence, among others, by a CBI court in Ghaziabad.

The HC had pointed to violation of basic norms while collecting evidence and the “failure” to probe the “possible” angle of organ trade.
Pandher was accused in six cases – he was earlier acquitted by the trial court in three cases and in one by the HC. He was also convicted under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956, and in another case arising out of the Nithari killings against which no appeal was filed. However, the HC had said that he had already completed the sentence prescribed under the said conviction.

Pandher was in jail for around 13 years after he was first arrested in December 2006, along with Koli.

On February 13, 2009, Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death by a special CBI court for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old. On appeal, the HC confirmed Koli’s death sentence but acquitted Pandher. Following this, Koli had moved SC with a plea, which was dismissed in 2011.

In January 2015, the HC had commuted Koli’s sentence to life imprisonment in this case, citing “inordinate delay in the disposal of the mercy petition”.

The police had lodged 19 FIRs against the two relating to crimes against 19 victims.